Randomness Rants Reflections

Category Archives: Make-up

I grew up a total tomboy. All of my cousins who were close to my age were boys. We threw footballs and climbed trees and played “army” games as kids. All of this happened pre-Internet and pre-Xbox home gaming systems. My cousins and I would play outside all day, without supervision, until the street lights lit up. Grandma rarely had to come outside to find us but when she did, we knew someone was going to have a chinela thrown at their head or smacked on their okole.

Because of all this activity, coupled with playing tennis as a young girl, sports became my hobby of choice. I even played little league baseball and AYSO soccer with the boys instead of softball and all girls soccer. Well, my hobbies became sports and reading. I didn’t know it was nerdy to like to read. I also didn’t realize that it was a bit of a contradiction to be a girl who loves sports as much as she loves reading Sci fi and fantasy books.

As I grew up and the hormones kicked in, I developed an affection for make-up, especially red lipstick. The elusive perfect red lipstick! In the 90s, the look was matte lips, especially in brick red or dark brown colors. The MAC Cosmetics counter at Nordstrom became my favorite place to shop. Lipsticks with matching liners.

Once I had my daughter, my priorities shifted from lipstick and clubbing to being a single mom. Luxuries like going out or buying make-up fell off of my list of “to do’s”. All I did was take care of her and work. My goal was to hussle and save enough money to buy a house for us in the very expensive LA market. Hussle led to work at a major automotive company, an opportunity to shape a new department that influences the culture of the company. I truly believe that I was put on the path to find my career in diversity. It met the intersection of providing a more than adequate salary and fulfilling my passion for helping good things become great. A few years after I purchased my house (with a bit of help from my parents) and a couple of major promotions at work, I had disposable income to go back to buying lipstick.

Enter Urban Decay. This brand had intimidated me because it seemed so rock n roll and alternative. My mindset had became conservative because of my career goals. No one at work knew that I had eight piercings and one tattoo. I dressed in suits with pantyhose and kept my make-up minimal and Bobbi Brown neutrals. But friends of mine praised this brand for their long lasting pigments and staying power.

The first Urban Decay Revol lipstick I purchased was “Manic”. The description of this color was a soft wine but I thought it was more of a rich plum with some red blended in for depth. I wore it every day for a couple of weeks, and it lasted through both a long day of work and two hour sweat fest on the dojo floor. I was hooked.

The hunt for the perfect red lipstick began in the summer of 2015. I own the following Urban Decay reds:

Now my collection includes every Urban Decay Revolution formula: sheer, matte, and the standard Revolution plus a few Revolution lipglosses .

My collection has grown to this:

Revolution lipsticks have incredible pigmentation. The color stays true on my lips but I’ve noticed that the natural pink/tawny tint of the melanin in my lips changes the color of the lipsticks on me.

Sorry the swatches are a bit smudged, I was just playing around one night and started looking at all of my lipsticks. When I realized how many I had accumulated over about a five month period, I decided I should blog about it.

Here are my Sheer Revolution swatches:

And the Revolution lipglosses:

I didn’t get these arms from applying lipgloss all the time. But I sure do enjoy flexing my arms as I apply my Urban Decay lipstick.

* This blog post is to share my personal opinions on this product as a consumer. I wrote this to alleviate some guilt from spending so much cash on make-up. I still feel like spending money on luxury items for myself is bad, even though I deserve to treat myself once in awhile. That’s the mindset of a single working mom shining through.

Long hair, don’t care. That’s a silly phrase my friends and I throw around fairly often. Long hair is a typical trait for hula dancers. I wouldn’t say it is a requirement to wear one’s hair long as a member of a halau (hula school) but let’s just say our kumu (hula teacher/master) would look disapprovingly upon one of us walking into class with a new pixie hairstyle. Many of the Gracious Ladies with short hair own hair pieces such as fake buns or clip-in extensions and dub these accessories their “hula hair.”

My real hula hair had gotten rather long in 2014:

With all that hair, my morning make-up routine consisted of carefully emphasizing my eyebrows, a thin application of eyeliner and two coats of mascara, plus eye shadow and tinted lipbalm. I usually went very natural with my eye shadow but applied it every day nonetheless. Once I had updated my hairstyle with bangs (see pic below), I felt like my make-up also needed a change and became obsessed with finding new lip products and color.

This pic is a selfie of me, as I walked out of the salon with my brand new bangs. The lip color in this pic is just a quick swipe of MAC Creamsheen “Crème in Your Coffee”. After my haircut, I felt like I had lost five pounds of hair! My daughter said she almost didn’t recognize me when I walked out. I was so happy with the change, as evidence in my big cheesy smile. My new look was fresh for 2015 and I felt like I actually looked younger. FYI, I refer to bangs as “budget botox” for women over 40.

When I got home, I looked at myself in the mirror and realized that my face looked out of balance. The bangs across my forehead looked very strong and I needed a bolder lip color to even out my new look. First, I turned to NYX Cosmetics. The founder, CEO and Creative Director of NYX Cosmetics is an Asian American woman named Toni Ko. One interesting fact is that Toni K. was in her twenties when she launched this line of cosmetics. Last year, I attended an awards luncheon for female entrepreneurs sponsored by NAWBO-LA, the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners and Toni K. received a Leadership Award. When she walked on stage, it struck me that Toni was young and Asian American. This may be a shock to some people but for me, seeing successful business women who are young and Asian inspires me. And the fact that her cosmetics are always held at affordable prices appealed to me, as well. Truthfully, I always looked past drugstore cosmetics because I felt that the quality would never hold up to department store products. But, seeing Toni K. at this event convinced me to give her cosmetics line a chance. In doing a bit of research, I also discovered that NYX Cosmetics is certified and acknowledged by organizations, such as PETA, as a cruelty free brand. NYX is committed to producing 100% cruelty-free cosmetics. NYX does not test any of its raw materials or finished products on animals. So NYX is affordable, richly pigmented and social responsible? Take my money.

A blurb from their website: “NYX Cosmetics, named after the ancient Greek goddess who ruled the night, uniquely offers a permanent collection of special-occasion makeup in addition to a solid selection of every day basics and on-trend shades. Known for rich pigments and high payoff in products is what places NYX in its own class and distinguishes the line as a leader in the massive color cosmetics industry.

The ultramodern and stylish packaging fused with the huge selection of highly pigmented colors continues to catch the eyes of many hip and sophisticated makeup gurus and has become a fave in their kits.”

My first purchase was a set of three NYX Lip Butters in “Licorice”, “Pops” and “Big Cherry.” This set seemed like the perfect introduction to NYX lip colors because two of the lipsticks were strong, bold, statement colors and the third was an everyday very wearable natural/pink color. NYX Lip Butter have a smooth and creamy texture, like sweet churned butter. That means they didn’t last through my slurping up a bowl of ramen but they do have a soft texture that does not dry out my lips. I have found that highly pigmented lip products tend to dry out my lips and in the colder winter months, I need lots of moisture.

Here you can see the three colors (Licorice, Pops and Cherry Bomb) on my arm. The Cherry Bomb color doesn’t pull as blue-red on my lips, probably because of the melanin in my natural lip color.

“Licorice” debuted on my lips with lovely and supportive feedback from friends. The color is a deep merlot color and it worked perfectly for Winter, I really liked the contrast with my untanned olive skin. This shot shows my hair pulled back and eyebrows filled in, because old make-up habits die hard.

The only criticism I have for NYX Lip Butters is that they aren’t long-lasting and sometimes, I need a lip color that I don’t have to reapply or worry about throughout the day. If I am presenting on stage at a conference, the last thing I want to fuss over is my make-up.

So I decided to scour the drugstore for a long-lasting lip color and found L’Oreal Infallible Lipstick.

I tend tobe wary of any two-step lip color application process. It just seems like too much fuss and mess. First, the color is applied with a lipgloss type applicator, sort of like painting your lip color on to your lips. Once the color has dried completely, you must slick the attached balm over it. Apparently, to maintain the rich color, all that is required is to reapply the balm throughout the day. And the balm has a very light texture and super glossy finish, which made me like this product even more. I purchased a faintly shimmery plum color called, “Violet Parfait” and the color was gorgeous.

The true test would be to wear the color on a normal day filled with snacking and hydrating and maybe even working out.

This is a shot of “Violet Parfait” on my hand. The color remained there, even after I washed my hands with soap and water. Now that is long-lasting! Perhaps the color is not “infallible” but I am impressed with the combination of high-pigmented long lasting color and super fun glossy balm on top.

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My second purchase is a bold, black cherry/wine color with a touch of metallic sheen in it, so it doesn’t look flat, called “Cherry Noir”.

This color needs to be carefully applied and I’m going to try to find a lip liner to use with it. If you a make a tiny mistake applying this color, you will walk around with lopsided lips all day, not the most professional look for a woman in Corporate America to rock.

The color swatches on my hands were taken without applying the glossy balm. The shine reflects so much that the pictures wouldn’t be able to show the color very clearly.

All in all, I love the NYX Butter Lipstick for the creamy texture that it kisses on my lips. And the L’Oreal Infallible two step lip color really lasts, even through a morning of two cups coffee or a sweaty workout after a long day at work. Each meets a different need in my quest for highly pigmented lip color. And because you can purchase them at the drugstore, trying out a variety of colors won’t hit your pocketbook too hard.

An interesting fact I discovered while doing a bit of research for this post, NYX Cosmetics was sold to L’Oreal in the Fall of 2014. So I’ve inadvertently kept my lip color purchases in one corporate family.

Thanks for reading. One last beauty tip I will share… I use coconut oil, from kitchen, as my overnight lip moisturizer now. A teeny dab, applied before bedtime, helps me wake up with smooth and kissable lips in the
morning. And a random fact to go along with that tip, if I want “Jim” to kiss me, I shouldn’t wear any lip color at all.

Today is Day Four after my IPL Photofacial. My face still has Oreo cookie patches all over my cheeks but it is starting to clear up. I also went back to work after being off for a week to spend Spring Break with my teen-aged daughter. Here is what my skin looked like this morning, I don’t think I look as scary as I did on Saturday.

Because I was going back to work today, I took extra time to blow dry and style my hair. One thing I will admit is that I have pretty hair. It’s jet black and very naturally shiny. People ask me what kind of products I use in my hair so I have to tell them that I just wash it with normal shampoo and let it air dry. I don’t usually take much time styling it because I’m a very low maintenance kind of woman in the morning. I’d rather spend an extra 15 minutes cooking a hot breakfast for my daughter, sleeping, or checking my Facebook page in bed than styling my hair. Of course, I was going to be in the office with patchy skin today so I blew my hair out and put on red lipstick. That’s usually a dead give away that I’m tired or feeling a little down, red lipstick is like camouflage to hide behind. Here is a selfie from my car this morning:

Today, my calendar was filled with conference calls and meetings. The sides of my cheeks are marked with Oreo cookie splotches. That made me very self-conscious as I walked around campus.

When I’m paddling, the areas that absorb the most sun exposure are the sides of my cheeks. Despite wearing a hat and heavy duty sunscreen, my cheeks have suffered the most exposure over the years. What makes it worse, when I’m at outrigger canoe practice, quite often my face is splashed with salt water from the ocean. No doubt my sunscreen is washed away, leaving my skin vulnerable to the sun’s damaging rays. This exposure is exponentially multiplied by the sun reflecting off the ocean.

I realized this fact when we were paddling out towards the eight minute pole at practice tonight. As per usual for a Spring evening, the ocean was choppy and temperamental. It felt as if our canoe was paddling through a washing machine. It was definitely not gentle cycle. Our ama popped up from time to time, threatening to throw us out and make the canoe huli (flip over). Between the rookie in front of me splashing water on me and the rough ocean conditions, I found my face doused with salt water for almost 90 minutes straight. My cheeks stung from the salt water, extra sensitive skin was just another side effect of the IPL Photofacial.

I do NOT recommend going out on the open ocean immediately after having an IPL Photofacial treatment.

This morning is Day Five and the Oreo cookie patches or coffee grounds are starting to flake off.

I felt like I looked horrible when I woke up. Thankfully, after I washed my face, my skin looked much better. What I noticed was that the skin beneath the Oreo cookie patches looks pink and new. But that also means I have small pink splotches on my cheeks. Hopefully those will blend back in to match the rest of my skin. What I am seeing in my forehead and the un-Oreo cookie patched part of my face is really glowing and healthy looking skin, thank goodness. It looks as bright as it does after I have had a spa facial plus a good night’s sleep.

Once I was out of the shower, I applied my make-up for work. The Oreo cookie patches were harder to cover today. The dead skin wanted to flake off of my face but I didn’t want to go to work without trying to cover it up. This is what I looked like before I left the house:

Wednesday morning aka Day Six.
The Oreo cookie patches are almost gone and I didn’t have to wear foundation or red lip camouflage today. Instead, I used a tinted moisturizer and one of my favorite NARS lip colors called, “Club Mix”. I discovered it when I was out to lunch with a colleague one day. Her lip color was a shimmery plum and it was just gorgeous to me. The color is from the Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil so it is a chubby glossy pencil and all kinds I gorgeous. Here are my before and after from rolling out of bed to walking into the office:

No vanity here, can you tell?

Now, I’m curious to see how my skin is going to look on Saturday, which will be one full week after my IPL Photofacial treatment. My thoughts regarding doing it again are doubtful. The money I spent could have gone into my Gino Vacation Fund for our Italy trip. Also, the recovery time is longer than I had expected. However, the experience was not as traumatic to my face compared to when I did a Vi Peel. That is a very intense chemical peel that essentially made my entire face fall off in sheets. I looked like a Walker who had been cooking inside of an abandoned vehicle in the hot Georgia sun.

Anyway, at the end of my workday, I noticed that my skin was peeling and very dry. Ugh. This is frustrating. I lost the Oreo cookie splotches but gained pink patches and flaky skin. This IPL Photofacial recovery time is no joke.

These last six days have given me an opportunity to figure out why I’m spending so much time and money to fight this war against aging. A realization came to me that it may be about control. Or trying to hang on to my looks as a way of controlling the aging process. It isn’t logical. I know can’t stop time but our society is geared towards valuing youth.

Pick up or download women’s magazines on health or beauty and there will be articles helping you to “Look Younger Longer” or to advising you to eat “Foods That Fight Aging”. The message isn’t subtle, it says that looking young kicks ass on aging. I recently saw a quiz that helped the reader answer, “How Old Do You Look?” with younger scores being more highly valued. These articles and quizzes were located just below a headline that read, “Beat The Clock.” Time keeps slipping through the hour glass of aging for us as we scramble to keep the sand from filling up.

I stated in part one of this blog that I feel 28. That’s not entirely true. My body feels strong and healthy. And luckily, my hobbies include dancing hula, paddling outrigger canoes, half marathons and Okinawan Shorin Ryu so I stay active. I will admit that I love my red wine and wine tasting is also an interest of mine but I’ve been limiting my alcoholic intake lately. If I open a bottle of wine at home, I always have two glasses when I drink, I tend to want to nosh on something yummy. Red wine and Trader Joe’s Sea Salt & Turbinado Sugar Dark Chocolate Almonds are a killer combination. You get chocolate with a sprinkle of salt and a kiss of sugar. Mmm, it can bring out the best notes from some of my favorite wines. Other times I enjoy red wine with a spicy Gouda from Whole Foods Market. The cheese needs a cracker or other carb to sit on before I devour it. I think I am as addicted to the crunching sound as I am to the yummy snacks. My point is, if I drink wine, I tend to snack and if I snack while I drink, I may over snack. That is not good for my waistline or my skin. But I digress.

I had stated that I feel 28 years old, which is true as far as my body goes. But my heart and my brain are a wise 43 almost 44 years old. I finally understand what it means to feel romantic love. Let me correct that, I finally understand what it means to feel mad, passionate, sappy, romantic love with a man who values my nerdiness as much as my intelligence and my 28 year old feeling body. It took me a while to find him but he is definitely worth the wait. And my 40-something year old brain realizes how short life really is. I don’t worry about having stuff to keep up with the Joneses. I’m not sure who the Joneses even are but I know that reference is appropriate. And I stopped sweating the small stuff. Financially, I am doing ok. My mortgage and bills are paid on time and I know I can’t spend like a maniac. But I also don’t feel like I need to shop for things to fill a void in my life. The things that are most important to me aren’t things. They don’t cost anything other than my time and attention. My daughter makes me see the world with fresh eyes and she rescued me from being dragged down into a dungeon of despair and distrust. I experienced more pain before I turned 25 than most people can imagine. Becoming a mother showed me how love heals everything. And I already had incredible parents and siblings and family that I like to hang out with as much as I love them. Some people don’t like their family members but I adore mine. My house isn’t impeccably decorated nor do I have the latest flat screen TV and appliances but it is warm and welcoming. Just ask my amazing friends. Some of them are my age and older, some of them are in their 20s and 30s. I bet some of them have tried Botox and photofacials, not that it matters to me. Sometimes I am afraid of looking older and that fear drove me to try an IPL Photofacial. I thought I was fighting a war against aging but I realized I was trying to defy the laws of nature and control it. Instead of desperately holding on to my youth and spending hundreds of dollars to control the aging process, I think I am going to let go and live life all in. I may have another treatment to hide the 11s between my eyebrows, if I start looking upset again. But I haven’t enjoyed feeling like I need to hide my Oreo cookie patches on my face. Living life all in, laughing loudly every day, and loving the people who mean the most to me is how I will win this war against aging, all while wearing 30+SPF sunscreen.

Quite often I hear that I don’t look my age. I remember a time when I thought 40 sounded incredibly old. But today, as a working mother in Corporate America, I realize that 40 truly is the new 30, or perhaps even the new 28. Yes, 28 is how old I feel. This may be the result of having given birth to my daughter around that age. My life as a single woman in Los Angeles shifted dramatically after she was born. There were no more late nights in the clubs on Thursdays but rather I spent time eating really healthy, organizing my home and trying to figure out how I was going to raise a baby alone.

Today, I am facing my 44th birthday and my skin is slowly starting to show it. I’ve always been rather conscious of my skin care and sunscreen is extremely important to my daily routine. I’ve encouraged my teenaged daughter to start this habit as well because the sun seems to do more damage more quickly today. (No comments on the ozone layer or global warming included today.)

About seven or eight years ago, my teammate turned me onto microdermabrasion, a beauty treatment that feels like a cat aggressively licking your face to remove the top (aka dead) layer of skin. It uses finely ground diamonds that are basically sand blasted onto your skin. Microdermabrasian doesn’t tickle but it doesn’t really hurt either. What I liked about it most is that it doesn’t take long for your face to recover and look normal again. One or two days of feeling extra dry and voila! The challenge is to take the time to do them on a regular cycle. The microdermabrasion lady told me to get on a three-week cycle to clear up all the dull/pale skin cells to encourage the bright skin to come to the surface of my face. It worked beautifully but it was hard to make the time commitment. I started going every eight weeks. The other problem is that it is not an inexpensive procedure so I had to adjust my budget to fit it in to my spending.

I was in my late 30s and apparently, skin grows new cells slower as we age so it starts to appear less vibrant and clear. Because I’m an Asian Pacific Islander, my skin has more melanin and it produced brown spots on my face. There is probably a medical term for those brown spots but I’m typing on my iPhone 4S and am too lazy to look it up.

Today, as I approach my mid 40s, the medical spa where I go suggested that I consider a “consultation” to discuss a strategy to combat aging. This is war.

I have been going to Skin Savvy in Hermosa Beach, CA and the CEO/Founder (I will call her General Skin Savvy) is my go-to woman for guidance regarding skin care. She turned me on to medical grade skin care products that include an amazing moisturizer, various cleansers and excellent sunscreens for my active life style and very sensitive skin. They are worth the extra investment, as my eczema has completely cleared from my face. I trust her with my face and we are now going to forge an alliance in my war against aging.

General Skin Savvy laid out options that varied from chemical peels, Vi peels, Botox, laser facials, and microdermabrasion. Chemical peels seemed much too aggressive for my sensitive skin so I ruled that out. Botox scare me but I developed these “11s” between my eyebrows after my marriage dissolved last year and they made me look angry or tired all the time. So, we shot some Botox in between my eyebrows and voila! Bye-bye “11s”, they lost that battle. Pricey, I admit, but I like looking “refreshed” instead of “angry”. My good friend said, “You look…like something is slightly different. The same, but different.” I like looking the same. More rested but the same.

Unfortunately, my microdermabrasians were not the only recommended next step in this war. Because of my advancing age, the “solar lentigenes” (or “brown spots”) were becoming more evident on my face and General Skin Savvy suggested I try an IPL Intense Pulsed Light Photofacial at the beginning of summer and one at the end. Microderms or another kind of on-going exfoliation and/or a lightening cream would be a nice supplement to help keep the IPL treatment effective but they weren’t as aggressive in this battle against aging.

On a Friday morning in April, I went to the spa for my first IPL. The day before, I had spent the day out and about with my teenaged daughter. We took an early morning Catalina Express across the channel to Avalon, CA for a fun-filled day of eating and zip-lining. My face looked like this:

Not bad, but not completely clear of solar lentigenes, either.

My first combat instructions were to apply numbing cream 30 minutes before my appointment. Now, I have an extremely high tolerance for pain so I questioned the General whether I needed to use the cream or not. She assured me I did. And she was right.

After my skin was sufficiently numbed, I went into the treatment room. Unfortunately, the General was on leave so I was being treated by one of her Colonels who happened to be Filipina, like me. Her skin was flawless, no solar lentigenes to be seen. We discussed her experience with the IPL and what I should expect as my skin recovers. Day One, my face would feel hot and possibly swollen, similar to a bad sunburn. I was instructed to wait at least 90 minutes before applying an ice pack because my face was producing new collagen. Apparently, the heat was a good thing. The a Colonel cautioned me that there would be brown patchy areas on my skin, where the sun damage was worst.

Day Two my skin would look like it had Oreo cookie patches all over it. There would be no scratching or peeling done or that would cause permanent scarring on my face. Gross. But I could go out wearing a hat and sunscreen that was SPF50, no less than SPF30, which I already wear every day.

Day Three would be more of the same but I would be able to cover the Oreo cookie patches with foundation. Liberal use of moisturizer was highly encouraged.

All right, I understood what I was getting into and laid back on the treatment table. The Colonel placed tiny protective goggles on my eyes and pulled back my hair away from my house. She proceeded to zap my forehead and cheek as test areas. She warned me that it would feel like a snap of a tiny rubber band in some areas and the hardest part would be when the laser was near my eyes. The light was so intense that I saw it with the tiny goggles on and my eyes closed. It made me think of tiny blasters being fired at my face or teeny white light sabers being stroked across my skin. There were areas where it hurt enough to make me flinch and a stench of burnt hair wafted in the air. The entire procedure probably took less than 10 or 15 minutes. Afterward, she applied SPF50 sunscreen and handed me an ice pack to use later. It was expensive, over $200, and I left with my cheeks feeling puffy and hot. I also wanted to hide my face immediately from the sun and from people so I walked into the surf shop below and purchased a fabulous summer hat. Retail therapy helped numb the pain.

Here is my hat:

The hat looked JLO fabulous and allowed me to hide from both the sun and people.

When I got home, the pain had subsided but my daughter said, “What happened to your face???” This is what I looked like immediately after my IPL Photofacial on Day One:

Sorry if the photos are a bit gross. I decided to take my daughter to a movie that afternoon, we saw “Captain America” and I also elected to go out to a Bon Voyage party for one of my hula sisters. The crowd would be mostly my hula ohana at a locally owned Thai restaurant that has karaoke. I figured that I could spackle some foundation on my face and apply some natural eye make-up and go without much fuss. Thankfully, the restaurant was not lit very hot and I felt fine, not self conscious at all.

Day Two was Saturday morning and I looked outside to see cloud cover and cooler temps, about 63 degrees. I slathered on two layers of SPF50, layered my paddling gear (sports bra, tank top, short sleeves and a long-sleeved jersey on top) to brave the outdoors. Practice would be 10 or 12 miles on the open ocean towards the R-10 bouy. This is what my face looked like on Day Two:

I didn’t tell anyone on my team that I had an IPL the day before and only one friend asked about my awful looking face, I know she’s one of my besties because she asked. Honestly, I did feel a bit self-conscious and uncomfortable so I wasn’t as talkative as usual. However, it was my first outrigger canoeing practice of the season so I chalked it up to trying to remember how to paddle at all. I usually stroke the canoe, which means I set the pace by sitting in Seat One, but that felt like the worst piece I paddled all day. Interestingly enough, I enjoyed steering the most yesterday. In fact, I actually kept the canoe running straight and on course. Boom for Pi’i. After practice, I went to lunch with my bestie to catch up on life…vacation, my new boyfriend, work drama, her dating, etc. We had a leisurely lunch together, filled with laughter & gossip. Afterward, I went home to shower and take a nap. That evening I decided to stay home and relax. I needed sleep and lots of water. And, of course, I needed some time to talk to my boyfriend. He and I are in a long-distance relationship so phone calls are very important to us.

Day Three, I went to yoga with a face full of foundation and my hair pulled back in a headband but not off my face. That felt weird. Usually, I have my hair up in a ballerina bun to stay off of my face. But it felt very nice to stretch and breathe and relax this morning. My face looked like this:

I will leave this blog post for the time being. Next week I will continue with my opinions on the IPL photo facial and whether I will continue with this strategy. The battle against aging skin may prove futile and I may need to stick to clean eating, regular exercise and laughing loudly every day. Even if I start looking “my age”, at least I will feel good and be happy. That’s the real way to win this war.